Rod Steiger

What do Judd Fry in "Oklahoma," the lead character in "The Pawnbroker," Napoleon, Al Capone and Rasputin have in common? All these gloomy characters have been played by actor Rod Steiger. Steiger has been working with the National Institute for Mental Health to lobby for patients' rights. On Wednesday, May 5, he will make a guest appearance, speaking about mental illness, at Highland Park Hospital's Ninth Annual Phyllis Podolsky Memorial Lecture, being held at Glenbrook North High School...

MADRID, April 8 (Reuters) - Spanish film legend Sara Montiel, who featured in 1950s Hollywood films with the likes of Gary Cooper and smoked cigars with Ernest Hemingway, died on Monday at 85. Montiel, born Maria Antonia Abad, died at home in Madrid, according to Spanish actors' union AISGE. Among her best-known English-language films were "Vera Cruz", a 1954 film that starred Gary Cooper, and 1957 Western "Run of the Arrow", released as "Yuma" in Spanish, a Sam Fuller...

Forget the rumors--Rod Steiger says he and Elizabeth Taylor are just close friends, dismissing tabloid reports of something more. "They tried to make it a big romance," Steiger told the syndicated "Hard Copy" TV show in an interview for broadcast Friday. Steiger said he met Miss Taylor at her home to discuss a movie sequel to "The Wizard of Oz." She was recovering from back surgery. He said he was empathetic about her being isolated, and he invited her to lunch....

Rod Steiger, one of the finest character actors of the past 50 years and an Academy Award winner in 1967 for his depiction of the bigoted Southern sheriff in "In the Heat of the Night," died Tuesday in Los Angeles. He was 77. His publicity agent, Lori DeWaal, said Mr. Steiger had been hospitalized with pneumonia and kidney failure. "My generation of actors was taught to be able to create different people," he once said. "That's what an actor is supposed to do." For Mr. Steiger, those people arched...

Last week's piece about people winning Academy Awards for the "wrong" movies prompted dozens of responses from readers who felt we missed some. Here are your suggestions: Jack Lemmon Won: best actor for "Save the Tiger." Should have won: best actor for "Some Like It Hot" or "The Apartment." -- Diane Rusniak Whoopi Goldberg Won: best supporting actress for "Ghost." Should have won: best actress for "The Color Purple." -- Diane Rusniak, Gypsy Cofta ...

In the Laserdisc Film Guide, by Jeff Rovin (St. Martin's), we learn that John Wayne wanted George C. Scott's title role in "Patton" and that these five actors over a five-year period had been offered the part but turned it down: 1. Spencer Tracy 2. Burt Lancaster 3. Rod Steiger 4. Lee Marvin 5. Robert Mitchum

Rod Steiger, one of the finest character actors of the past 50 years and an Academy Award winner in 1967 for his depiction of the bigoted Southern sheriff in "In the Heat of the Night," died Tuesday in Los Angeles. He was 77. His publicity agent, Lori DeWaal, said Mr. Steiger had been hospitalized with pneumonia and kidney failure. "My generation of actors was taught to be able to create different people," he once said. "That's what an actor is supposed to do." For Mr. Steiger, those people arched...

Carroll O`Connor will portray a Southern police chief in an NBC adaptation of the racially explosive "In the Heat of the Night," which starred Rod Steiger and Sidney Poitier in the feature film roles in 1967. The NBC version will air over eight hours: a two-hour premiere that is scheduled to begin production Nov. 30, and six hour-long episodes. Fred Silverman ("Matlock") and Juanita Bartlett ("The Rockford Files") will coproduce the television version. No broadcast date has been set. O`Connor will...

Forget the rumors--Rod Steiger says he and Elizabeth Taylor are just close friends, dismissing tabloid reports of something more. "They tried to make it a big romance," Steiger told the syndicated "Hard Copy" TV show in an interview for broadcast Friday. Steiger said he met Miss Taylor at her home to discuss a movie sequel to "The Wizard of Oz." She was recovering from back surgery. He said he was empathetic about her being isolated, and he invited her to lunch....

MADRID, April 8 (Reuters) - Spanish film legend Sara Montiel, who featured in 1950s Hollywood films with the likes of Gary Cooper and smoked cigars with Ernest Hemingway, died on Monday at 85. Montiel, born Maria Antonia Abad, died at home in Madrid, according to Spanish actors' union AISGE. Among her best-known English-language films were "Vera Cruz", a 1954 film that starred Gary Cooper, and 1957 Western "Run of the Arrow", released as "Yuma" in Spanish, a Sam Fuller...

It was unmistakably Rod Steiger, heftier than one might have remembered him from his dozens of films, strolling into the Astor Street apartment of friends. He wore a black turtleneck under a black sport coat. A golden medallion hung from a chain around his neck and his handshake was fleshy but firm. "I am here for the art show," he said, referring to that feast for the eyes and strain on the pocketbook called Art 1998 Chicago, at Navy Pier. "I am always looking for things. I have been collecting art forever."

It was unmistakably Rod Steiger, heftier than one might have remembered him from his dozens of films, strolling into the Astor Street apartment of friends. He wore a black turtleneck under a black sport coat. A golden medallion hung from a chain around his neck and his handshake was fleshy but firm. "I am here for the art show," he said, referring to that feast for the eyes and strain on the pocketbook called Art 1998 Chicago, at Navy Pier. "I am always looking for things. I have been collecting art forever."

As Eldin Bernecky, "Murphy Brown's" house painter for six years, Robert Pastorelli had one major mission -- to bring a dose of reality into Murphy's media-hype world. Not a problem for Pastorelli, a down-to-earth New Jersey native who collects old Cadillacs and loves blues music. Even he agrees: "I never considered myself a polished kind of guy. My heroes are Elvis, James Cagney, Muhammad Ali and Rod Steiger." In his new film, "A Simple Wish," he plays one kind of unpolished guy, a Central Park buggy...

"The Naked Face," a wimpy suspense movie shot in Chicago in the fall of 1983, doesn`t do much good for the city or for anyone connected with it. The film has plenty of problems, including harsh lighting and murky photography, but its principal fault is that it has a perfectly dreadful story and absolutely silly dialogue, taken from a first novel by Sidney Sheldon. Roger Moore, wearing horn-rimmed glasses and probably wishing that James Bond would get him out of all...

The Chicago International Film Festival has a tendency to toss around the names of celebrities who might show up (but often don't), so nobody was terribly surprised that Lifetime Achievement Award winner Rod Steiger was the only celebrity at Saturday's 30th annual CIFF gala at the Hyatt Regency Chicago. For a while it would have been understandable if people thought a group listed in the lobby as Anesthesia Seminars America had something to do with the...

The Chicago International Film Festival has a tendency to toss around the names of celebrities who might show up (but often don't), so nobody was terribly surprised that Lifetime Achievement Award winner Rod Steiger was the only celebrity at Saturday's 30th annual CIFF gala at the Hyatt Regency Chicago. For a while it would have been understandable if people thought a group listed in the lobby as Anesthesia Seminars America had something to do with the...

In the Laserdisc Film Guide, by Jeff Rovin (St. Martin's), we learn that John Wayne wanted George C. Scott's title role in "Patton" and that these five actors over a five-year period had been offered the part but turned it down: 1. Spencer Tracy 2. Burt Lancaster 3. Rod Steiger 4. Lee Marvin 5. Robert Mitchum